Lance’s Fierce 5 Novice Log

Hi everyone

Ok, I’m taking the advice of ItsTiME35 and creating a log as I go through this program. I’m hopeful that it will be a little bit motivational (e.g. enforcing some kind of accountability) as well as that the occasional passerby might stop in and offer some useful advice.

Plan
First, let’s talk about what my program will look like.

Nutrition: I’ve been eating clean at a deficit for the last 16 weeks, and have lost about 15-16 kg in that time. That was at 2400 calories. I intend to bump that up to 3000 calories starting next week, which I figure will be about maintenance, and hold that for a month or so before starting a slight bulk (some 3200 calories or so). I just want to ensure that my calculated maintenance really is, before I increase further.

Lifting: Fierce 5 Novice, baby, just as described in the sticky. Though I do plan to substitute pull-ups for the lat pulls; last week I did 8 neutral grip strict pull-ups without touching the ground, so I figure that’s a good starting place. Over the last 4 months I’ve done 4-day and 5-day splits designed by a trainer (Micah Lacerte), so this will actually be fewer lifting days for me. I’ve got the Strong app on my iPhone, I’ve mapped in the program, and it seems to work pretty well for me so far.

Oh, and lifts are measured in kg out here, so I’ll be upping the weights by 4kg (squats, deadlifts) and 2kg (everything else) rather than 10 and 5lbs. ;-)

Cardio: For the last 12 years or so I’ve loved running. In the past months I’ve been running about 60km per week (5x12). I don’t really want to back this off if I don’t have to, as I think it’s good fun, great for my heart and lets me eat a little more, but given all the feedback about how exhausting this program is for your body, I’ll probably drop down to 4 days per week (e.g. non-lifting days). At 4 times per week, I’ll burn between 2400 and 2700 calories each week on running alone.

Except maybe this week, as I have the Red Bull charity run on Sunday, and I expect to get some 20-25km in that day....

So, that’s my plan. And since today was the first day of my program, let’s move on to the report!

Week 1 - Day 1 - Workout A
Turns out that I can export this directly from my app, so creating the log won’t be hard at all. I set all the weights fairly low per the advice in the Fierce 5 thread so that I can progress steadily. In the end, I feel that the bench was the one that gave me the “right” workout; calves were probably too heavy (see form check section) and the rest were a bit light. That said, I want to ensure I get the form right from the beginning, so I’m ok starting a bit light.

Workout Notes: Pretty solid - spent a fair bit of time videoing for a form check. I successfully resisted the urge to add pull-ups onto the workout, no matter how much I wanted to!

Form Check

In the above video, which I’ve taken a couple looks at now, I’ve recorded one set of each of the 5 lifts (well, 2 are supersetted). Generally it was the first set, though on the calf raises and (I think) bench, video errors meant you get the second set.

I think that my overall form looks decent (which probably means y’all are gonna come in here and rip it to shreds ;-)). Nonetheless, I’ve highlighted a few areas through slowed or stopped time where I think I’m a little off.

Squats: This is my first ever try with the lower bar position - I’ve always done it on my collarbone before. I think I like it better this way. On my first rep, I don’t think I came down low enough, but I’ve frozen time later where I think I have pretty much the right bend in my knee.

Bench: I slowed time where I think I’m flaring my elbows just a bit. I tried to keep them tucked in, but you’ll see they make a roundish motion, and then when I go up I’m bringing my shoulders forward, which I need to avoid. Otherwise, I guess this is ok.

Pendlays: First time ever doing these; learned that I can’t warm up with 30kg (5k plates on each side of a 20kg bar) on these anymore because the clips extend out further than the radius of the plates - I’d drop them on the clips. But aside from that, I guess my form is ok... any comments here, since this is completely new to me?

Face pulls: Also completely new to me. Seems a simple enough exercise, but I think on some reps I’m not pulling my elbows (well, shoulders, the elbows are symptomatic) back far enough.

Calf raises: I felt when doing this that I had the right amount of weight on, but when I saw the range of motion (decreases at the end), I think I’ve probably got too much weight. I need to lift my heel higher, I think.

Tricep pressdowns: Didn’t have my core quite tight enough in the first rep or two, but otherwise I think it looks good.

Thanks for reading y’all, I’ll try to keep this up to date, and appreciate any feedback you may have!

Lightweight entry today: did a 10km run, 49 minutes. I doubt I’ll log all the runs in the future as that would just add unnecessary noise here, but I’m tapering down towards my race on Sunday, and since it’s day two I just wanted to log something!

lot of vids, so I'll keep the feedback to the basic important stuff for now.

Any and all feedback much appreciated - thanks for taking the time!

Originally Posted by WolfRose7

Squats - You are setting up backwards, set up facing the back of the rack, come under the bar, walk it out back.
Watch any set up video on youtube. Brian Alsruhe has a decent one.

I was actually aware of that, but I haven’t figured out why it’s important yet. I did it that way because the mirror is on that side and I could check my form, but turning 180 degrees won’t be a problem. Would love to know why it’s relevant, though - I saw that none of the videos I watched walked forward, but nobody explained it. Will look up Brian’s later.

Originally Posted by WolfRose7

Bench - Just looks flat and loose, get shoulders back and down, but up the bench (but not head) to get a bit of arch going and just get everything tighter.

That one surprises me a bit. I was trying hard to get an arch to my back (you can see at the beginning that I have a gap underneath my back before the first rep, but before I lifted I made the arch a bit lower and the shirt hangs loose enough to hide the gap). Might still have had my shoulders forward more than they should be nonetheless, so I’ll rewatch and keep an eye on that next time.

Face Pulls - look on point, I prefer to set the pulley up and mid chest and pull up as well though, Omar Isuf has a vid on this. Try different heights and see what you like.

Overall great job, and well played for getting videos of everything.

Thanks! I wonder if there’s a message in the fact that you only gave me a passing grade on the two lifts I’ve never done before... heh.

I have to say, videoing myself was actually kind of fun. Won’t do it too often as it slows me down, but I will try to do it again tomorrow as it’s a different set of exercises and I want to form check those, too.

Originally Posted by WolfRose7

Just please. please get rid of the gloves lol

That’s another one I haven’t figured out, though I’ve read enough comments like that in various threads to expect someone to comment on it. What does everyone here have against gloves? I particularly like these because of the straps for my wrists, and while I could just get straps... I don’t - yet - understand why the gloves themselves are a bad thing.

Anyway, thanks again for stopping by and providing feedback. I’ll read it all again before I train on Friday so that I can do my best to incorporate it all!

lot of vids, so I'll keep the feedback to the basic important stuff for now.
Squats - You are setting up backwards, set up facing the back of the rack, come under the bar, walk it out back.
Watch any set up video on youtube. Brian Alsruhe has a decent one.
Bench - Just looks flat and loose, get shoulders back and down, but up the bench (but not head) to get a bit of arch going and just get everything tighter.
Pendlay's - Pretty solid tbh, maybe bit wider grip and bit higher touch.
Face Pulls - look on point, I prefer to set the pulley up and mid chest and pull up as well though, Omar Isuf has a vid on this. Try different heights and see what you like.
Overall great job, and well played for getting videos of everything.
Just please. please get rid of the gloves lol

Workout Notes: No online form check today as I forgot the phone in the car, but I definitely did not do these as cleanly as I did workout A. Need to practice:
* Front squats are a bit awkward but manageable.
* Need to understand the right way to rack and de-rack for OHP (and whether / how to use the safeties)
* On the RDLs, I found it easy to start with my shoulders back but they always wanted to slip forward at the end. Need to watch a few more videos on those.

Standard grip pull-ups were good and clean, though I was hoping to get to sets of 8.

Do I need to use a straight bar for the curls, or is the EZ bar ok?

P.S. No gloves today.

Last edited by Corbets; 05-01-2018 at 11:09 PM.
Reason: Important P.S.

Turned 180 degrees on the squats while focusing on pushing the ground with my feet (per layne norton’s instructional video), brought my grip in a little closer on all the compound lifts, and tried to keep tighter during the bench. The bench is a much more difficult (as in: complex) exercise than I thought when I was doing it in Uni...

Swapped one set of the calf machine for standing with dumbbells due to gym traffic. Added in an extra set on the triceps, as the weight feels pretty easy. Kept the pulley on the facepulls high - I’ve seen varying opinions on moving it down low, nothing bad against keeping it high, and they feel good up there.

Oh, and did a short 8k run yesterday. Tapering for my race on Sunday at this point. Need to be sure to eat right too - going to do 20-30k on Sunday, and I want to be sure I get as much recovery as possible before Monday’s lifts.

Workout Notes: Holy calf cramps Batman! Those suck! Kept the weight the same for another week on the calf raises, given that I started near my limit last week.

Otherwise, workout was pretty solid. Pendlays felt good - form, weight, etc. Squats were pretty ok, and I think I did a much better job on the bench - plus, I found a different station where the safeties were at a more appropriate level (on the other one they were either too high or too low, but without the raised deadlift flooring, the same model cage fits better).

Realized that I went up by 5kg instead of the planned 2.5 on the OHPs Monday, so I made sure to get the progression right this time.

Also, did the suggested stretches (agile 8 as well as the upper body routine) from the fierce 5 novice thread. Not sure I’ve got those down right yet, but I’m working on them.

Oh, and did a 12km recovery run yesterday.

Feel nice and worked - ready for the flight to the beach tonight!

Last edited by Corbets; 05-09-2018 at 12:44 AM.
Reason: Progression was right, recording was wrong (on the bench). Oops!

Workout Notes: Hotel gym is way better than most, but still not as good as my normal gym. Still, got it done.

Pull-up station was a bit funky, as the grips swung forward or backwards freely in an arc. Got a PB on overhand grip pull-ups though.

Still need to better learn the RDLs, but front squats were ok, and the OHPs are great - my core is nice and tight.

First set of bicep curls were light as I had to use the available fixed-weight bar, so I upped the reps. EZ bar came free after that though.

Trying to keep my back straight on the crunches so I only use the lower portion of my abs - need to check technique on that, but otherwise I feel like I’m curling my body into a bad position.

Aside from massively overeating yesterday (by about 2k sugary calories - felt like crap all night, won’t do that again), it’s a great start to holiday. Did about 550cal of swimming in the sea yesterday, too.

Workout Notes: Front squats were ok-ish. Weight is starting to feel heavy! A little unstable here in the first set, but sets two and three were tighter.

OHPs - had my feet too far apart in the first sets, improved in the third. I’m trying to only move my head back to let the bar up, but it looks like I might be swinging my back a little, which I’m trying to avoid.

RDLs - crap first set on video (and crap video, too - sorry, didn’t get all of me in it, apparently). Started with a poor grip, you can see me change it up before I start my set. -u think I just focused too much on shoulder position in the first set and it threw me off, but I think I’m too far forward here for one thing. Need to sit a bit further back. Did that in sets 2 and 3, and my legs felt much more engaged.

Pull-ups, well, crap, but I guess that’s to be expected. Yesterday’s scale read 7kg more than last Wednesday, and while it was “only” 4kg up this morning, that’s still a lot of extra weight to be hauling around. These will improve again as I cut the excess off in the coming week or two. I didn’t quite make the 7th rep here, so I only counted it for 6, and I threw in an extra set when set 2 came in so low.

Abs and bicep curls felt more or less fine. Maybe I’m swinging my elbows forward a bit in the curls, should pay attention to keeping them stationary. I’m deliberately keeping my body under tension with the abs (e.g. not letting my shoulders hit the bench), but I’ll have to watch some videos to see if that’s right.

Workout Notes: Much better form on everything today compared to last time! Feeling great. Started using the hook grip today on the big 2 [edit: not on the front squats!] which hurt a bit but locked in the weight nicely.

Front squats and OHPs are feeling close to failure, definitely hard now.

RDLs became super easy today when I finally figured it the right form to activate the hamstrings. Another twenty kg wouldn’t be a problem, I think, but I’ll continue with the planned progression.

Pull-ups were amazing - felt like I could have done a 9th on the first set, but didn’t want to go till failure. Maybe helped that my grip wasn’t as tired thanks to using the hook grip on everything prior to that?

Bigger range of motion on abs today too - emphasis on the decline part of the decline crunches.

Bicep curls are also getting hard!

Added in some dumbbell carries to stress the grip a bit more. Not sure if that’s a good idea or not; saw a thread where Davis said that forearm work was ok, but these work core and such too, I think. We’ll see how I recover. Weight is per arm, reps are actually meters (approx).

Not much to report today, but giving myself a bump since I had some kick-ass cardio today. 12km in about 57 minutes, which I think is none too bad.

However, the more I read the less certain I am that my 4x weekly 12km runs are the ideal cardio for this stage of my journey. I‘d hate to lose this running capacity I‘ve built up, but I think I‘ll probably drop one or two of those each week in favor of some short sprints instead. Looking at probably doing something like 6x30s, with a full rest (3-5 mins) in between each. That means I‘ll save quite a bit of time compared to my endurance runs, but hopefully will still have a positive impact on fat and heart without any canabilization of my musculature...

Workout Notes: Still feel great about everything in this program! Really loving it so far.

Squats were really perfect today. Which made it all the more amusing when I saw a guy who didn’t look particularly buff loading up even more weight on his squat bar... then doing about ten sets, but never getting within 30 degrees of a right angle at his knees. Whoops!

Bench felt pretty strong, still adjusting a bit to the hook grip on that one.

Pendlays... mostly strong, but I worry that maybe I’m swinging the weight in towards the belly a bit at the top. Need to take video again and watch. They’re my most explosive movement, though.

Face pulls we’re strong, really focused on bringing the shoulder blades together, but I’m developing a bit of a lean to balance the heavier weight. Need to post a video I took today in the exercise section to see if anyone has suggestions.

Tricep press-downs were hard but satisfying.

Decreased weight on the calves, but still came close to cramping. Think I figured it out though - as I do my reps, my foot slowly slides down the footrest, so it’s moving from pressing on the ball of my foot to the toes. When I’m at the toes and hit max extension, that’s when the calf screams. Think I need to figure out how to stay on the ball of the foot.

Noted in the shower that my right leg was trembling! Then, when I started paying attention, I found that my left leg was too. I guess that means it was a solid workout.

And here’s the video I’ll post in the exercise section for the form check. This was my third, unrecorded set of face-pulls.

Workout Notes: Oops! Way too much weight on the OHP first set - misremembered where I was at!

Still, that’s 4 weeks down. I feel stronger, and while I haven’t measured my arms or anything yet (I intend to do that every month), the scale shows a slight weight gain. The past week’s average is 83kg, even if I was 82.6kg this morning, from a low point of 82kg. It’s been a bit in flux due to my vacation, but I’m back on a slow and steady bulk now. When I hit 86kg I’ll reassess whether I’m still lean enough for my tastes or if a small cut is required.

Managed to improve things as the session went on - deadlifts were fine, and I rocked the pull-ups. Two sets at 8kg. The 6th rep in the third set was barely legit, but I think I got high enough to count it, so I’m getting close to the target of 3x8.

Did 6x30 second sprints yesterday instead of my usual distance run. Probably going to up it to ten next time and try to do that twice per week and distance (12-15km) twice per week, see how that works for me.

Bench good. I swear my back is more arched than that oversized shirt makes it look.

Pendlays - not sure, need to watch video. Having done so, I think that I’m bringing my hips down to the bar in the later reps a bit????

Face pulls - did sitting, really allowed me to focus on the scapula. Good stuff.

Tricep press-downs - at my current limit at the end today. Almost didn’t make the last rep.

Calf raises - no cramps today. Made the form change I figured out last week and started eating a banana with breakfast (hadn’t had any fruits during my cut). Will start taking a magnesium supplement now.

Oops! Wrong title in there - I named the pendlays Romanian deadlifts. Well, whatever, they’re clearly pendlays.

Did 12km this morning. I’m settling into a pattern of sprints twice per week, distance twice per week, and fierce 5 three times per week. Let’s me keep something going every day, and it feels like a good mix.

Workout Notes: Today was definitely a bit special! Fairly tired and low energy when I got to the gym - woke up at 2:30 for some reason and struggled to get back to sleep - so I really had to buckle down and focus.

Front squats were alright, managed to keep it going and increase the weight per plan, though I was fairly slow coming out of the hole.

OHPs, on the other hand... I just about blew it! In the first work set, my body was all over the place. Kept trying to tighten up my core but to little effect, barely completed the set despite having put up more weight by mistake last week. During my inter-set break, though, I figured it out - I’d moved my grip inwards. Widened it out for the next two sets and focused on my core, and I put them up properly.

RDLs continue to be pretty easy. Figuring out the form helped a lot. I probably have a couple weeks before really struggling here.

Read a few guides on pull-ups this week and really focused on bringing my shoulders down and together before I started the movement (I easily reach the bar while standing on - slightly - raised toes). This made the movement feel smooth and strong, and I was within half a pull-up of three sets of 8 today. Next week I’ll get it, and the week after that I can start adding small amounts of weight.

Abs were ok, though I think after another 3 weeks I’ll switch to a different ab exercise.

Bicep curls - first fail! Failed a lot earlier than I expected, too; I’d have figured I’d get near to 8 or 9 reps at this weight, based on last week’s performance. So it goes, though. I only failed once, though, so my understanding of the program is that I should try again on Monday and only if I fail that, reset the weight to 85%. When I do that, though, I’ll increase reps every even week and decrease reps / increase weight every odd week.

Now I can go into the office feeling like a man, though - love the time in the gym!

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Wasn’t sure anyone was still reading this. ;-)

@Omar: Never gonna get anywhere if I wimp out every time I’m a little tired. Just have to buckle down and do it, right?

@Daawhitty: Good thoughts, thanks! I’m still going to back off the weight slightly, I think, but if I can’t work the reps up then I’ll switch it up for some hammer curls like you suggest. There’s a whole world of bicep-related movements I can do, I think; I’d just like to try to stay with one for a few months before I switch it up.

Workout Notes: Had my first three beers of the year last night, and being a lightweight now didn’t help - felt rather hungover this morning. Hit the gym nonetheless, and by the time I was halfway through the squats I felt fine and motivated again.

Overall good stuff today. Leg cramp returned during calf raises, but my magnesium supplements arrive today and I’m hoping that will help.

Squats and bench were both pretty tight. Triceps continue to be a just-barely-made-the-last-rep-clean exercise, we’ll see how I do next week. Seated face pulls still feel great.

Pendlays were the only “ugh” point though. There were a couple reps where I just barely missed connecting with my chest - or so I think. When you don’t touch, it’s hard to tell if you missed by a millimeter or a mile. So I have to focus on getting those all the way up again.

Yesterday’s sprints were decent, too.

I think I’ll take progress photos this weekend, since it’s been five weeks. I’m feeling... thick is the only word for it. It might be my imagination, but I feel like I’ve put on noticeably more muscle in the core. The fiancée also told me that it’s “weird” how my bicep just “pops out” like that, which I took as the best backhanded compliment ever.

If anything, I think I’m a bit leaner than I was 5 weeks ago, though my arms look bigger. Quantitatively, the scale shows a very slight increase (my low point was 81.9kg, my low moving average was in the mid 82s, and my current moving average is 83.1kg). Arms have grown half a cm, chest and belly have gone down half a cm, and thighs have gone down 2cm, despite a net increase in calories (apparently not enough) and a greatly increased diversity of diet. So I’m enjoying a Starbucks bagel with cream cheese now. ;-)

Overall, I’m happy. Strength is clearly going up, still looking great, and I’ve got nothing to complain about - except a lazy, tired dog who cut my run short because he couldn’t keep up this morning. Lazy Labrador... wimped out after just 8k!

Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional prior to beginning any diet or exercise program or taking any dietary supplement. The content on our website is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or to replace a relationship with a qualified healthcare professional.